Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is a peptide which consists of 9 amino acid residues and is synthesized and secreted in the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system. As antagonists of the arginine vasopressin, peptide type compounds and non-peptide type compounds have been synthesized. For example, a compound disclosed in JP-A-2-32098 is known as the peptide type compound (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). On the other hand, 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-benzazepine derivatives represented by the following general formula have been disclosed in EP-A-0514667 and JP-A-5-132466 as non-peptide type vasopressin antagonists. ##STR2## (As for symbols in the above formula, see aforementioned patent publications.)
Also, International Patent Publication No. 91/05549 disclosing the compound represented by the following general formula, and 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-benzodiazepine derivatives and 2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1H-1-benzazepine derivatives disclosed in JP-A-4-154765 are known. ##STR3## (As for symbols in the above formula, see aforementioned patent publications.)
Although various studies have been made as described above, creation of novel arginine vasopressin antagonists having more excellent profiles is still now an important clinical object.
On the other hand, almost no compound is known as a compound having a nitrogen-containing aromatic 5-membered ring-condensed benzazepine skeleton, which is the basic structure of the compound of the present invention, and only processes for the synthesis of a few compounds having such a ring structure have been reported in J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 (1978) No. 8, 862-70 and Org. Prep. Proced. Int., 25 (5), 602-6 (1993), but their structures are clearly different from the structure of the compound of the present invention. In addition, use of these compounds as pharmaceutical preparations have not been known.